Chai Latte Bars

Cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.  Comforting, warm spices that find perfect harmony in this delightful recipe that is perfect for autumn. 


This is another recipe that does not call for any leavening agent, so the bars are dense and packed with flavor.  The oats add just the right amount of texture and the white chocolate adds just the right amount of sweetness to balance the spice of the bars. 


Speaking of the white chocolate.  Please buy the real stuff in bar form.  Do not buy white morsels.  First of all, the Premier White Morsels do not say chocolate anywhere on them.  Secondly, they do not melt, or at least they do not melt for me.  I have even tried heating them over a water bath, in the microwave, you name it, and the morsels just end up a congealed mess.  I don't understand it. 


I do know that the actual white chocolate it bar form, melts like a dream, and spreads so nicely over the warm bars.  So, the extra expense is worth it for such drastic results.


Chai Latte Bars
Recipe inspired by Food Network Kitchens


Ingredients
2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons malted milk powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
9 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish and set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, malted milk powder, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.  Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. To the butter and sugar mixture, add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer to low and beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.


Place the batter in the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle the top with the white chocolate, then return the pan to the oven until the chocolate softens, about 45 seconds.  Remove from the oven again and spread the chocolate into a smooth layer with a spatula.


Transfer to a rack and let cool completely, then cut into squares.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

My memories of chocolate mousse stem from the Ponderosa buffet.  Rich, fluffy, and chocolaty, it was always a dessert I piled high in my bowl.  I have had the thought of making my own chocolate mousse many times, but the Alton Brown recipe didn't intrigue me enough to do it.  AB's calls for espresso and rum, two ingredients I don't keep on hand, and my desire to make the mousse wasn't strong enough to make the investment.

Queue Geoffrey Zakarian's mousse featured on The Kitchen.  It was the Valentine's Day episode and we were having a family gathering at my house one Saturday morning.  For some reason, Food Network always seems to be on when we have a bunch of family over for breakfast.  I happened to hear Geoffrey Zakarian talking about how simple and delicious this mousse was, so I decided to surprise Valerie with some on Valentine's Day.

Emilie helped me make the mousse, and it really was as simple as Zakarian made it sound.  Basically it's just melting, whipping, beating and folding.  The only thing I didn't know for sure was how much to heat the egg yolks over the water bath.  I did it until they were just warm to the touch, and it came out perfectly.  I don't know if the temperature really has that much impact on the final result, but it worked for me.

The mousse came together in no time, and we were dishing it in serving bowls to cool.  After few hours in the refrigerator, we topped the mousse with whipped cream and some shaved chocolate and it was time to devour.  The first bite was all it took to realize this is probably the best dessert I have ever made.  The mousse was rich, dense, smooth, airy, and soft, with an intensely satisfying chocolate flavor.  Combined with the sweet lightness of the whipped cream, it just hit on all the right notes.  I really can't describe how amazing the texture was, I guess I'll just have to make it again to see if I can better put it into words.

Geoffrey Zakarian's Dark Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped chocolate (72 percent)
1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
Toppings:
Whipped cream, for serving
Chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a simmering water bath.  After melting the chocolate, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks in a separate bowl. Set both bowls aside.

Add the egg yolks to the bowl of a stand mixer and set over the same water bath to slightly heat while beating them with a whisk. Next, add the sugar to the yolks and then transfer the bowl to the stand mixer set up with the whisk attachment. Beat the yolk and sugar mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved and it doubles in size, about 5 minutes.

Delicately fold the melted chocolate into the yolks. Finally, fold in the whipped cream. Divide the mixture into 4 bowls or glasses and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Just before serving, top the mousse with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings.

Peanut Butter Pie

What good is making your own peanut butter if you don't have a fabulous peanut butter pie recipe to go with it?  I have been making my own peanut butter for about three years, and I love to make this pie every once in a while.  I say 'every once in a while' because this pie is so rich; a little bit goes a long way.  That said, I usually take this pie to parties because it would be too much for my family to eat by ourselves in a reasonable amount of time.

If you are going to make this pie, I would recommend using AB's peanut butter recipe that can be found on Food Network's website.  If you click the 'printable recipe' link below, the peanut butter recipe will be included.  Also included in the link is AB's roasted peanut application.  I have never roasted my own peanuts for this pie, mainly because I can't find raw in-shell Spanish peanuts anywhere.  I buy roasted salted Spanish peanuts from The Sunspot, and they never fail to produce a scrumptious peanut butter.

This peanut butter pie recipe is fairly straightforward.  There are a lot of steps, but the end result is well worth it.  The hardest part is waiting for the pie to cool, which you have to do a couple times during the process of making it.  The wait is well worth it as the reward is a smooth pie, that's not too sweet, where the peanut butter is actually the star.

Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe Courtesy Alton Brown

Printable Recipe

Ingredients
6 1/2 ounces chocolate wafers
1 tablespoon sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
1 batch homemade peanut butter
3 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the wafers and 1 tablespoon sugar. Process until the wafers are fine crumbs. Melt 3 ounces of the butter and drizzle into the crumb mixture. Pulse to combine. Press this mixture into the bottom, up the sides and just over the lip of a 9-inch metal pie pan. Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

After the crust has cooled, place the peanut butter and remaining 2 ounces of butter into the bowl of the food processor. Process for 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and process for another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until smooth. Carefully spread the mixture into the pie shell and return to the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while preparing the topping.

Place the heavy cream into a heat-proof bowl and microwave on high just until simmering, approximately 30 seconds. Remove the cream from the microwave and add the chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is completely submersed in the cream. Allow to sit for 2 minutes. Gently whisk until the chocolate is melted and combined with the cream, approximately 2 to 3 minutes.

Spread the chocolate mixture over the pie and chill in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 hours before serving.

AB & Me

Hey look! That's me with filmmaker Alton Brown. "Filmmaker" Alton Brown, you say? Well, in the first commercials for Good Eats, that's how he was advertised. I remember Angela and I making fun of those commercials, wondering why they had to promote him as a filmmaker and not a chef. But, I watched the show anyway, and after I realized how much I learned about cooking from Alton Brown, I was hooked.

Angela and I watched a lot of cooking shows when we were growing up. There was no Food Network prior to 1993 and I don't think our cable provider carried it until around 1996, so cooking shows were few and far between back then. I remember watching The Frugal Gourmet, The Graham Kerr Show, and Paul James' Home Grown Cooking. I don't know what drew me to watching cooking shows; I have just always enjoyed them.

After we got Food Network, I was in cooking show heaven, and soon after I started watching it, I realized Good Eats was different. Instead of the TV chef just showing me what ingredients to mix together, Alton Brown actually told me why I was mixing these ingredients together and what the result would be. It was almost like watching Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye only with food, and it just doesn't get much better than that.

I still watch Good Eats, and new episodes are still airing. I joke that it costs me about $40 to watch a new episode, because I am usually inspired to make whatever recipes Alton Brown presents on the show. So, if that means going out and buying a new kitchen gadget or some ingredients I've not worked with, so be it. I have learned so much from the show and Alton Brown has expanded my culinary knowledge so much, it was an honor to have met him.